House Sales and Purchases

The government is hoping to provide more new homes by improving the way land is made available to developers, making it easier and more streamlined. Elizabeth Crouch Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of Residential provides an update. Homes England launched its new Delivery Partner Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) to mark a significant shift in the way the agency procures housebuilders, as well as increasing flexibility and accessibility. For the first time,…

The government has allocated £8.6 billion to boost the number of affordable new homes and help thousands of people on to the property ladder. Elizabeth Crouch Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of Residential provides an update. The Affordable Homes Programme is expected to deliver around 119,000 homes, including 57,000 for ownership, 29,600 for social rent and 6,250 affordable rural homes. The cash injection could support up to 370,000 jobs across the…

A LEADING legal firm has doubled its number of house sale transactions over the past year, in line with a national trend in the property market.As research released today predicted that this year’s housing market is on course to be the busiest since 2007, Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors said its property department had seen a huge jump in transactions since last April. According to the property website Zoopla around 1.52 million…

The government’s new scheme to help people buy a home with a 95% mortgage has now come into effect. Mandy Shum Conveyancer in our property team provides an update. It means buyers can now get on the property ladder even if they only have a 5% deposit. The mortgages are available to both first-time buyers and existing homeowners for houses costing up to £600,000. The government will offer lenders the…

Two major home builders have been told to remove contract terms that mean leaseholders have to pay ground rents that double every 10 or 15 years. Elizabeth Crouch Associate Solicitor & Head of Residential provides an update. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched enforcement action against 4 housing developers in September 2020. These included Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey, for using possibly unfair contract terms, and Barratt Developments and Persimmon…

THE EXTENSION to the stamp duty holiday announced in the Budget today will come as a relief for home-buyers, says a solicitor at a leading legal firm. Jonathan Carroll who is a Director at Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors, said the extension of the March 31st deadline for three months would allow transactions currently underway to take place without the worry of paying the additional tax. The Treasury announced last July that…

Ownership of leasehold property is determined by the Lease entered into between the Landlord and the Tenant.

It normally takes between 10 to 14 weeks to buy a house, sometimes even longer for a flat.

Property: What is the difference between exchange of contracts and completion? At exchange of contracts both parties are bound to the contract and the buyer pays the seller a 10% deposit. Completion is when you actually move home and at that stage the seller has to give vacant possession of the property to the buyer.

The government has launched an £11.5 billion programme to build 180,000 new homes across the country over the next five years. Mandy Shum Conveyancer reports. It’s hoped that the move will unlock a further £38 billion in public and private investment in affordable housing. New homes will be made available from next year. Around half of the new homes will be available for affordable home ownership, helping more people to…